It's been more than four years since Stacy Martin and two other Southwest Airlines flight attendants were ousted from their union posts in an internal power struggle that wound up in court.
Now, nearly three years after a lawsuit was decided against him, Martin, with Chris Click and Jerry Lindemann, is keeping the fight going, this time with a recently filed lawsuit accusing the flight attendants union of misusing funds during their prior legal battle.
The three and Martin's sister, Southwest flight attendant, Kelley Martin, sued Dallas County District Court. They charge that current executive board members improperly used union funds to pursue the initial 2013 lawsuit, which the complaint describes as a "personal vendetta."
The case is a window into the politics of airline unions, where several thousand dollars and disagreement over the interpretation of union bylaws can lead to a protracted legal fracas.
Audrey Stone, president of Transport Workers Union Local 556 and one of the seven named defendants in the case, said the latest lawsuit has "no merit whatsoever."
"The issues in this latest lawsuit, we believe, were already resolved in the earlier lawsuit and its appeal. TWU Local 556 prevailed at trial and on appeal," she said in an email.
The dispute traces to 2012, when Martin was elected president of TWU Local 556, with Click elected as first vice president and Lindemann as treasurer.
The next year was marked by turmoil in the union, according to legal filings, with some union members accusing Click and Lindemann of using misleading financial information in presentations to employees. Martin, Click and Lindemann, in return, said they were being harassed and undermined by the group of flight attendants whom they defeated in the elections.
The situation came to a head in May 2013, when Click and Lindemann were set to face internal disciplinary hearings stemming from complaints filed by other union members. As the hearings neared, the executive board moved to postpone them for scheduling and logistical reasons, but Martin, still the president at that point, didn't heed their request and the trial took place.
Over the ensuing weeks, an internal power struggle played out in which Martin, Click and Lindemann were removed from their posts, but not before a war of words between the two sides that included allegations from Martin and Click that the locks on their union offices had been rekeyed to keep them out.
Following union bylaws, Stone, who was part of the losing slate in the 2012 election, was elevated to president, a position she still holds.
That November, the union initiated a lawsuit against Martin, Click and Lindemann that alleged a breach of fiduciary duty and sought reimbursement largely for hotel lodging, airfares and other costs associated with the disciplinary hearing the union said should have been delayed.
In February 2015, a judge ordered Martin to pay damages to the union totaling $17,570 after a jury trial. Click and Lindemann were not found responsible for any damages, according to court documents.
That could have been the end of the dispute, but the three men weren't ready to give up their fight, instead filing their most recent lawsuit just before the statute of limitations expired, said David Mestemaker, their attorney.
"They had to kind of coalesce as a group to decide whether they wanted to mess with this again," Mestemaker said.
The new complaint alleges that the executive board misused union funds, spending significantly more to pursue their case against Martin, Click and Lindemann than it won back.
The complaint also alleges that the board didn't adequately disclose to union members how much was being spent and why.
Click and Lindemann are still employed as Southwest Airlines flight attendants, Mestemaker said. Martin no longer works for the company.
The three are also set to go to trial next month in a separate federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas that alleges they were improperly removed from their offices in 2013.
